In a pneumatic tire, a band layer consisting of a jointless ply is formed on the outer side in the tire radial direction of a belt layer. Thereby, the belt layer is tied up to suppress lifting of the belt layer or the like, and the durability of the tire is improved. The band layer employs a structure comprising a wide full band ply which covers an approximately entire width of the belt layer, and a pair of narrow edge band plies disposed on the radially outer side of the wide full band ply and on both sides in the tire axial direction.
Heretofore, however, the full band ply and the edge band plies are separately formed by spirally winding respective band-like plies. As a result, cut ends of the band cords appear at both ends of the band layer. There is a problem such that the binding force for the belt layer can not be fully improved for that reason.
In the following Patent Document 1, it is also proposed that each end portion of a jointless ply is formed in a two-layer structure by decreasing the helical pitch of a band-like ply in each end portion of the jointless ply so that the band-like ply is partially overlapped. But, in this case too, it is difficult to fully increase the binding force because the cut ends of the band cords appear at both ends of the jointless ply.